The Real First Day of School

Yesterday was such a great day!  I loved meeting all the kids and finally seeing what it's like to be in the classroom.  It really felt natural, and it made me feel really good.  The kids are sometimes chatty and sometimes afraid to ask for help, but they're really all good kids.  

The morning class (Math 2) was interesting for both me and my mentor teacher, because we realized we had no idea how to explain the algorithms for long division problems or even borrowing in subtraction.  We were then very concerned with how we were going to get them to learn these skills.  However, through talking with other math teachers, we discussed how it's probably not even essential for them to know how to do long division, because so many people use calculators when they need to do stuff like that.  Furthermore, it is probably more helpful to them if we teach them estimation and mental math, because that is really the true problem-solving aspect of it.  That is what will be most beneficial to them in the long run.  It is also more important to teach them the logic so they can check their answers.  Sometimes their responses are just totally illogical, and it would be helpful if they had a self-check mechanism in place.  So I think we're going to try and go that route instead of finding a way to teach arcane algorithms that no one uses any more anyway.  I'm also going to try to figure out ways for them to visualize what exactly they're doing with number lines or blocks or whatnot.  I am optimistic that we can still be successful with them if we teach the concepts instead of memorization.

The afternoon class (Math 5) was at the opposite end of the spectrum.  These kids asked a lot of questions about the why and how it worked, and they even caught mistakes in the worksheets.  They were diligently still working when class ended, and it was nice to see them already excited on the first day.  Also, while my mentor was teaching the lesson and comparing the equations of compound growth, there were a lot of sounds of understanding and realization from the kids: "Oh," "I get it," and "That makes sense."  That's always gotta be good feedback for the teacher.  It was also nice to see the kids that caught on quicker helping the other students.  However, I do worry that there were still a handful of kids that it may not have clicked with, and I hope I'll catch those sooner than later before they get too behind.

In short, it was a really successful day.  I am really happy about it, and I am really excited for this year.  I've still got a lot to learn from my mentor teacher about reading the kids and how to discipline.  But maybe I won't suck as much as I thought I might.  :)